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CCFE in partnership for ITER blanket design work | 10/01/2013

A partnership involving CCFE has won a contract for design work on ITER's Test Blanket Modules.

Led by international engineering and project management company AMEC, the consortium is to develop designs for these crucial components, which have the role of converting neutrons from the fusion reactions inside ITER into tritium. Tritium is one of the fuels that will drive future fusion reactors, but its natural scarcity means that power stations will need to breed their own tritium fuel – around 300g per day for every 800MW of electrical power. The blanket modules on the ITER experiment will test fuel breeding concepts with a view to implementing them on the prototype fusion powerplant DEMO.

Among AMEC's other partners in the contract, which is worth up to €4 million, are Idaho National Laboratories and specialist companies including Hyde Engineering Group.

Martin Townsend, CCFE's Business Development Manager, said: “For a number of years, Europe and other ITER parties have been developing tritium breeder blanket concepts that will be tested in the form of Test Blanket Modules on the ITER device. This contract enables CCFE to support the development of the modules through the next design phase and is a key milestone in our strategy to support industry in the delivery of future fusion reactors.”